How to Become a Scandal: Adventures in Bad Behavior Hardcover by Laura Kipnis

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice

We all relish a good scandal. Why do people feel compelled to act out their tangled psychodramas on the national stage, and why do we so enjoy watching them? The motifs are classic—revenge, betrayal, ambition, madness—though the pitfalls are ones we all negotiate daily. After all, every one of us is a potential scandal in the making: failed self-knowledge and colossal self-deception—the necessary ingredients—are our collective plight. How to Become a Scandal is “an extremely smart, funny, acid, and beautifully written meditation on a scary truth that we all try desperately to ignore” (David Shields, author of Reality Hunger: A Manifesto).

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Two very public downfalls and two very public uproars guide us through the contemporary infernal regions of scandal: the downfall of the lovelorn astronaut, Lisa Nowak, and an unreasonable judge, Sol Wachter, and the uproar set off by Linda Tripp and James Frey. Familiar as they may be, Kipnis (Against Love) freshly illuminates her subjects' plights, while scrutinizing the public delight in their misfortune, wearing her learning so lightly that the reader is easily seduced by her quick wit and her camouflaged erudition. Kipnis ties psychoanalysis and reality TV, detectives and literary critics, talk show hosts and sociologists, along with the scandalizers and the scandalized into a persuasive bundle: Scandals aren't just fiascoes other people get themselves embroiled in while the rest of us go innocently about our business, she argues. e all have crucial roles to play. A deliciously flippant tone serves the reader the juicy details we savor so about scandal, while tossing in some timeless questions and speculations about the deeper meaning of it all ( free will, moral luck, the stranglehold of desire, the difference between right and wrong ) as though they were mere garniture. This is a dead serious book that's an utter lark to read.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A top strategic analyst explains what the Cold War can teach us about the War on Terror

September 11 was a product of bad intelligence and wrongheaded expectations about al-Qaeda’s motivations, intentions, resourcefulness, and capabilities. But it also sprang from a failure of the kind of predictive strategic thinking that kept the world from becoming atomic rubble in the fifties and sixties. In Thinking Beyond the Unthinkable, strategic analyst Jonathan Stevenson illuminates both the genius of nuclear deterrence and Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), plus the blind spots that limited the great Cold War civilian strategists’ intellectual fertility and flexibility. Once the Soviet Union collapsed and the existential threat of nuclear holocaust abated, the American strategic community— from intelligence officers to policymakers to think tanks—lost the capacity to forecast and prepare for impending new threats to U.S. and global security. Complementing the cold-eyed revelations of Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Tower and Thomas Ricks’s Fiasco, Thinking Beyond the Unthinkable is a probing, urgent exhortation: if we are to extricate America from its current strategic predicament, we must regenerate for a new age the pragmatic creativity that once distinguished its strategic brain trust.

Jonathan Stevenson is a professor of strategic studies at the Naval War College. He spent most of the 1990s in sub-Saharan Africa and Northern Ireland, and his previous books include “We Wrecked the Place”: Contemplating an End to the Northern Irish Troubles and Losing Mogadishu. He has published articles in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and The National Interest, as well as in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Republic. 

Brenda Brissette-Mata was born in Flint, Michigan, and has lived in the area her whole life.  She began working at The Flint Journal as a high school student in 1975 and continued at the newspaper while attending the University of Michigan-Flint.  She has worked as a columnist since 1991.  Her three sons, 17-year-old twins and one 9-year-old, keep her busy, but in her spare time Brenda enjoys sorting laundry, paying bills, hugging her children and pretending to have life under control, although not necessarily in that order.

That was the last thing Klaus had to say before we left J.C.' s diner to go our separate ways. On my way home, I decided I would drive by my grandparents' home. Every once in a while I'll do that, even though it's very painful to realize that they're gone now and that house belongs to someone else- a total stranger. When I come to the house, I park in front and just sit there, recalling that during the Prohibition Era this house was a blind pig and my grandmother was the proprietress. As a young boy, I would walk the three miles from my house just to sit on the front porch with "ma" so I could listen to her tell stories about the "old days". It's been thirty years since I've been inside that house, which was a second home to me when I was growing up. I have a feeling that if I were to go inside now, that my grandfather would still be sitting there in his favorite chair wearing nothing but his BVDs (the kind with the back flap that buttons up) reading "True Detective" or "Field and Stream." I am tempted to walk up the front steps and ring the doorbell, but I don't dare. 

Not far here was a little pond and a garbage dump. In the summers of my childhood, I'd go down to the pond and catch tadpoles and pollywogs, or I'd walk over to the dump and scrounge around for hidden treasures amidst the trash. Say, what's happening to me? Maybe I'm dying. No? Then why is my whole life- beginning with my earliest memories- suddenly passing before my eyes? 

It's my birthday, I'm five-years-old old and I'm sitting on a wooden pony on the fifth floor of Hudson's Department Store in downtown Detroit where I'll be getting my first professional haircut. Later that same day, my mother takes me to Sanders for a Hot Fudge Sunday. Cut to that little pond I mentioned. I've been catching pollywogs with a strainer and putting them in a jar when a big kid comes up to me and orders me to leave. I refuse and he wrestles me to the ground, demanding that I say uncle. When I refuse to say uncle, he gives me a good pounding, then takes that jar of mine and empties its contents back into the pond. I don't cry, but holding back the tears, I vow to myself that I'll get him back some day. But I never do. 

So many things from my childhood have disappeared, like that pond, for instance, which is no longer there, and the garbage dump, and the creek where we fished for carp and the bridge that spanned it- all of that's been gone for years. Gone, too, are the vacant lots where we played pick up baseball in the summer, and the woods where we had bonfires in the fall, roasting marshmallows over the fire while warming ourselves. Now that I think of it, my grade school is gone- torn down years ago to make way for a Farmer Jack's. And the schoolyard where we held our marble tournaments before and after school (knuckles down, no hunching) and played kick ball and dodge ball- that schoolyard where I had so much fun- buried and paved-over into a parking lot- gone. Gone the way of the sheeny-man who came into our neighborhood riding an antique horse that clop, clop clopped down our street pulling a wagon full of junk while the sheeny blew his shrill-sounding horn to let the neighborhood know that he had arrived. Gone too, the ice man who carried big blocks of ice with silver tongs for our ice box; and gone- the man who delivered the coal that went rumbling down the coal shoot and into the coal bin, a fascinating place in its own right when you're still young enough to appreciate such things as coal bins All that's gone. 

Within walking distance of my grandmother's house is the movie theater. I'm six and I'm standing in a long line with all the other kids holding a quarter in my hand: the price of admission back then. For a mere twenty-five cents you've gained entrance to that darkened theater to watch three movies, a newsreel, a serial, (Flash Gordon was my favorite.), cartoons and coming attractions. Seven years later, in that same theater, I sit down next to a strange girl and ask her if she would like to neck with me, and she consents, taking my hand in hers and leaning her head on my shoulder. (Necking wasn't really allowed, and if you weren't careful, a very official-looking usherette, who wore a uniform with gold buttons down the front and epaulettes on the shoulders, would shine her flashlight on you.) The last time I drove by the Lincoln Park Show it was advertising itself on the marquee as Adult Entertainment. 

The Depression having ended by the time I was born, my earliest memories begin around the time of World War II. My mother is sitting down at the kitchen table placing little green stamps in her ration book. Once the book is full, she'll go to a redemption center and have the stamps redeemed for money to buy food with. That was the year we planted a victory garden in the vacant lot next to our house. In a similar vein, the kids on our my block had paper drives and collected scrap metal. It was all part of the war effort, for as young boys we were learning how to be patriotic and to love the flag and "the country for which it stands"- America. As a matter of fact, my very first lesson in patriotism came in the form of a warning from the big kids on my block never to let the American flag touch the ground or I'd have to burn it- just one of a number of taboos I learned as a child similar to, but nowhere near as fearful as, "step on a crack and break you mother's back'. 

Where are they now?- my comic book collection and those hundreds and hundreds of matchbooks that I picked out of gutters and found in empty fields on the way home from school. And why? Because, as a kid of nine, I found the endless variety of match covers fascinating. What happened to my Lionel train- the one I woke up to find underneath the Christmas tree, my Red Ryder be-be gun and my American Flyer bike?- where are they now? 

At that age, my indoor world was a world of tinker toys, erector sets, and games- all kinds of games: hockey, basketball, football and my favorite, APBA baseball,- and the radio. Every Sunday, after church, my dad would buy a paper from the paperboy, and when we got home, I would do is spread out the comic section on the living room floor, then turn on the radio and listen to the Sunday comics being read over the air. During the week, when I get home from school, the first thing I do is turn on the radio and listen to my favorite programs: Jack Armstrong, All-American boy, Captain Midnight, (I wear my Captain Midnight decoder ring that glows in the dark), Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, and broadcast from WXYZ, our very own Lone Ranger. Hi-o Silver, away. In the evening was Baby Snooks, The Great Gildersleeve, Inner Sanctum, Lights Out, My Friend Irma, Bulldog Drummond, The Shadow, Mr. Keane, Tracer of Lost Persons, Name that Tune, Mr. I.Q., Life with Luigi, and another local favorite, The Green Hornet. 

My outdoor world was the streets, the vacant lots, the fields and the alleys of my neighborhood. In the street we played hockey in the winter and touch football in the fall; in fields and vacant lots we played pick up baseball and built our underground fort where we slept out on hot summer nights playing Hearts and Crazy Eights by candlelight, or we climbed up the rope ladder to our tree house where, with our binoculars, we could spy on all our neighbors. Alleys were for alley-picking and for war games played with cap pistols, be-be guns, and sling shots. We made walkie-talkies out of old tin cans and string, kites using clothes line, parachutes, and model airplanes. In the vacant lot next to my house we played cork ball- if you ask me, the greatest game ever invented. You could play cork ball using a large bobber or an ordinary bottle cork for a ball and a broomstick handle for a bat. A ball that landed in the alley was a triple, on the other side of the alley, a home run.. 

Item: our alleys were paved with cinders back then. The White Street gang lines up on one side, the Garfield Street gang on the other. There's going to be a rock fight. Before you know what's happening, the sky is filled with rocks. You throw, you duck, you throw another rock and then you duck and then something happens- your face is burning and throbbing. You've been hit. My god, you could have lost your eye. You could cry, but you don't. You are a casualty in a rock fight and you will carry a scar beneath your eye for the rest of your life, and you didn't cry- you are a hero. That night, after your father comes home from work, you get your first good licking. In bed that night, you pull the covers over your head and listen to your favorite radio programs before you fall asleep. 

I'm back in the real world again, saddened by the sight of my grandmother's house. Whoever lives there now has let in fall into disrepair. No, I wouldn't want to go inside; it would depress me to see how everything would be different. No, I'll go now. I turn on the engine and head for home. I wonder as I drive past the familiar landmarks of my youth how time has changed so much, transforming Main Street into block after block of blighted buildings. Where there was once an ice cream parlor, a barbershop, and a shoe repair, there are now ugly abandoned or boarded-up buildings. Our two dime stores: Niesner's and Woolworth's, and Winkleman's, a classy women's clothing store, are now a dumpy-looking Dollar Store, a Temporary Jobs Office, and windowless Community Mental Health Center. Cunningham's, with its lunch counter where you could sit and have a chicken salad sandwich and a cup of coffee while you waited for your bus, is gone, and Sanders closed its doors ten years ago. 

Last week I went with J.C. on a delivery run down near the docks in River Rouge and saw the Columbia, one of the two Bob-Lo boats, in dry dock. It's being restored. All the same, there will be no more picnics on the island because Bob-Lo Island, with its roller coaster, its dance hall and its many amusement rides, was sold to private developers and everything was torn down. At one time we had four such amusement parks; now there are none. Gone are the penny arcades of my youth, the slots where for a penny you could get sepia-colored pictures of ballplayers and boxers, movie stars, wrestlers and cowboys. All that's gone. But most tragic was the demolition of Hudson's, as thousands lined-up to watch the spectacle of this great landmark implode into a huge pile of rubble. 

When I think of all that's been lost, I am saddened. One magnificent railway station demolished, the other, Michigan Central, an empty hulk. Now that all of its windows have been busted out, it's nothing more than a vacant shell of a building. And those lavish movie palaces of a bygone era, almost all them gone- closed or destroyed. The great burlesque houses, like the famous Gayety and The Esquire- they, too, have vanished, as have those magnificent ballrooms, the Grande and the Vanity; those proud hotels, the Sheraton Cadillac and the Fort Shelby; and finally, the Vernors' plant- the first one, the one located at the foot of Woodward Avenue where you caught the Bob-Lo boat way back when. I believe it's been more than fifty years since they tore it down. A local product, Vernor's has the distinction of being the first soda pop in America. Today, it is owned by one of America's largest conglomerates: the Pepsi Cola Company. 

I remember the day the carnival came to town and seeing the boy with webbed feet, the bearded lady and the man who had a baby growing out of his stomach. Until the day I die, I'll never forget that man with the baby. Of all the freak shows I've seen, that's the one I'll never forget. How on earth, this six-year-old wondered (as he stood inside that stuffy tent with the smell of sawdust in his nostrils, holding on to his daddy's hand) could a man have a baby growing out of his stomach? How did it happen? That was in the city of Ecorse some fifty years ago on the fourth of July. I remember it well, especially watching the fireworks from atop the Ferris wheel, a burst of sound- boom- then splashes of color lighting up the sky, appearing in an instant, lingering for a moment, then fading away into the dark 

A light goes on inside the house. I turn on my engine and drive off, but before going directly home, I take the overpass that connects suburbia with Detroit. Reaching the highest point of the overpass, I look out at the cityscape, all aglow and spread out like a magic carpet of light. Directly below- the refinery, with its eternal flame; then farther out, the Ambassador Bridge with its colorful beads of light, strung along the bridge from one side- the American side- to the other- the Canadian side; and then, at the farthest point of vision, the mills and factories bordering the river, their myriad lights; candles glowing in the dark, their smoke stacks; vertical canons, sending up ghostly wisps of smoke into the night sky -light to ward-off the coming darkness of a fascistic America ruled by powerful and impersonal corporations in league with a government indifferent to the dreams and aspirations of its people, the working people of America. We cannot let this happen; this relentless juggernaut has to be stopped. If we don't stop it and stop it soon, before it is too late (if it's not already too late), the lights will go out all across America and darkness will cover the land.

Number one bestselling author Janet Evanovich teams up with award-winning author Dorien Kelly to deliver a sparkling novel of romantic suspense, small-town antics, secretive sabotage, and lots and lots of beer

Kate Appleton needs a job. Her husband has left her, she’s been fired from her position as a magazine editor, and the only place she wants to go is to her parents’ summer house, The Nutshell, in Keene’s Harbor, Michigan. Kate’s plan is to turn The Nutshell into a Bed and Breakfast. Problem is, she needs cash, and the only job she can land is less than savory.

Matt Culhane wants Kate to spy on his brewery employees. Someone has been sabotaging his company, and Kate is just new enough in town that she can insert herself into Culhane’s business and snoop around for him. If Kate finds the culprit, Matt will pay her a $20,000 bonus. Needless to say, Kate is highly motivated. But several problems present themselves. Kate despises beer. No one seems to trust her. And she is falling hard for her boss.

Can these two smoke out a saboteur, save Kate’s family home, and keep a killer from closing in…all while resisting their undeniable attraction to one another? Filled with humor, heart, and loveable characters, Love in a Nutshell is delicious fun.

Number of Players: 1-2
Ages: 8+
Playing time: 10-20 minutes
Components: 22 oversized story tiles, 2 scoring tiles

A solo and cooperative tile-laying game. Players will help Shahrazad tell stories to pass another night by playing tiles featuring unique takes on iconic fairy-tales to construct the best story.

Each turn players will play a single tile, then draw a tile, building a folk-tale tableau. With 24 oversized, fully illustrated tiles in a deluxe package Shahrazad is a beautiful gift package for couples, or parents and children. Placing certain story types together will grant players more points, but telling a story in the wrong order will drastically limit their options.

Review

"I would recommend this one. It’s nice and relaxing . . . the kind of game you’re going to be able to play after work to disengage a little bit." - Zee Garcia, The Dice Tower

"Shahrazad is an interesting challenge as a solitaire game, with enough randomness to stymie a perfect solution yet enough control that skill will win out more often then not. The urge to 'beat your last score' is strong, particularly as getting a perfect store would require an unlikely combination of skill and luck together. It’s even better as a two-player cooperative, requiring the smarts of the solo version plus strong communication skills. 4 out of 5 stars." - William Niebling, ICv2

". . . addictive and a lot of fun." - theMCGuiRE review

"Shahrazad’s redeeming personality consists of this revealing of layers over time. You will grow in skill and new depths of play will emerge. You will hit new high scores and your grasp of strategic concepts will blossom like a spring rose." - Charlie Theel, Geek & Sundry

"I had far more fun playing this than I could have imagined, and this will continue to hit the table for me after this review." - David Wiley, Cardboard Clash

"I really like Shahrazad. It’s simple, easy to understand and quick to play, particularly the solo game. It’s going to be a keeper for us." - Dave Taylor, Go Fatherhood

"Featuring gorgeous artwork by Kotori Neiko, Shahrazad takes some very simple mechanics around tile placement and creates a tricky puzzle where finishing the game isn’t difficult but scoring well is." - Keith Law, Paste Magazine

". . . a nice little solo/two player co-op game that's fun to play with enchanting illustrations." - Robin Brooks, Agents of Sigmar

"I like the fact that you can play solo. So if you have a lonely lunch and it's just you you can pull this out and play." - The Dice Tower's "Board Game Breakfast"

"Highly recommended for abstract game enthusiasts and strategists of all ages." - Timothy Connolly, Multiverse

"If you enjoy solitaire games, you definitely want to get Shahrazad. If you’re looking for a shorter two-player cooperative game, chances are you’ll love having this one in your collection. I’ll also add that you should get this [if] you collect beautiful board games because this one definitely fits in that category, as well." - Ronny Alexander, Co-op Board Games

"Amazing artwork! Looks great. Feels great." - Ding & Dent

"Shahrazad is one of those games that you could comfortably purchase for a seasoned gamer friend, or even an older relative who may not have discovered the glory of modern gaming. In either case, you will have made a wise choice, as I believe that easy-to-learn, quick-playing, and 'thinky' games such as this appeal to a much wider audience as much as they do to me." - Scott Bogen, The Board Game Show

"A nice little solo/two player co-op game that's fun to play with enchanting illustrations. GeekDad approved!" - Robin Brooks, GeekDad

"Shahrazad’s simple rules can be learned in just a few minutes, making it accessible to all but the smallest of children, but the game offers enough strategy to entertain any adult." - Matt Staggs, Unbound Worlds

". . . for younger gamers this is s a great game to get to the table. Definitely get this one out." - Rolling Dice & Taking Names

"This is a perfect date night game or couples game." - Dukes of Dice

"Shahrazad is a beautifully produced puzzle with simple mechanisms, gorgeous art, and an accessible theme. It plays and teaches quickly. Rounds move progressively quicker and don’t tend to stall." - John Pappas, Board in the Library

"It's fun. It's nice and quick and easy. The tiles are really cool to look at. I like the artwork." - Board Gamers Anonymous

". . . addictive and a lot of fun." - theMCGuiRE review

About the Authors

Born in 1982, Yuo is a freelance game researcher living in Osaka, Japan. Tired of digitization after 8 years in the IT industry, Yuo is now a full-time board game designer.

Kotori Neiko is a freelance illustrator living in Osaka Japan. She loves wild birds, printings, and board games. In July of 2012 she won the ARCPHILIA Prize at the SAKURA Exhibition 2012.

Regret the Error: How Media Mistakes Pollute the Press and Imperil Free Speech by Craig Silverman  and Jeff Jarvis

We regret the error: it’s a phrase that appears in newspapers almost daily, the standard notice that something went terribly wrong in the reporting, editing, or printing of an article. From Craig Silverman, the proprietor of www.RegretTheError.com, one of the Internet’s most popular media-related websites, comes a collection of funny, shocking, and sometimes disturbing journalistic slip-ups and corrections. On display are all types of media inaccuracy—from “fuzzy math” to “obiticide” (printing the obituary of a person very much alive and well) to complete and utter ethical lapses. While some of the errors can be laugh-out-loud funny, the book contains a sobering journey through the history of media mistakes (including the outrageous hoaxes that dominated newspapers during the circulation wars of the 19th-century) and a serious muckraking investigation of contemporary journalism’s lack of accountability to the public. It shines a spotlight on the media’s carelessness and the sometimes tragic and calamitous consequences of weak or non-existent fact checking. 

From Publishers Weekly

Blogger Silverman is a man obsessed with pointing out the mistakes of others, though he dreams of a world in which he didn't have to. If media outlets printed their own corrections more thoroughly, amending online content appropriately, embracing their mistakes wholeheartedly, he argues, he wouldn't have to collect and publicize them with such devotion. Having founded regrettheerror.com to tally inaccuracies and corrections in the press, Silverman has set out to chronicle and categorize these errors in his first book. The result is a winding journey through the most glaring, damaging and humorous typos, misprints, misidentifications, fuzzy numbers and obiticides in the history of journalism, from the accidental to the malicious. These chapters are chock-full of amusing historical anecdotes, including the story behind the incorrect headline Dewey Defeats Truman, the case of mistaken identity that galvanized Nobel to create his prestigious awards, and the oft-presumed dead but still living Abe Vigoda. Silverman injects plenty of humor, but mostly he is deeply concerned about the science of journalism, and at the heart of this romp is an argument for increased public participation in the news cycle.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An adventurous ride through the most blisteringly hot regions of science, history, and culture. 

Melting glaciers, warming oceans, droughts-it's clear that today's world is getting hotter. But while we know the agony of a sunburn or the comfort of our winter heaters, do we really understand heat?

A bestselling scientist and nature writer who goes to any extreme to uncover the answers, Bill Streever sets off to find out what heat really means. Let him be your guide and you'll firewalk across hot coals and sweat it out in Death Valley, experience intense fever and fire, learn about the invention of matches and the chemistry of cooking, drink crude oil, and explore thermonuclear weapons and the hottest moment of all time-the big bang.

Written in Streever's signature spare and refreshing prose, HEAT is an adventurous personal narrative that leaves readers with a new vision of an everyday experience-how heat works, its history, and its relationship to daily life.

Bill Streever, a biologist and affiliate faculty member with the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, likes to say that he sees the world through the twin lenses of science and history. He is the bestselling nature writer behind Cold, Heat, and And Soon I Heard a Roaring Wind. As a scientist, he has worked on issues ranging from the environmental effects of underwater sound to the evolution of cave crayfish to the restoration of tundra wetlands to climate change. With his wife, marine biologist Lisanne Aerts, he lives aboard the 51-year-old cruising sailboat Rocinante, currently in Central America. When he is not busy fixing the boat, he spends his time sailing, reading, diving, hiking, rowing his dinghy, paddling his kayak, and, of course, writing.

In 1850, the town of Coloma, California may be a dream come true for those panning for gold, but will the men in town be as lucky when they search for true love? Find out in Charity Phillips' Brides Of The Coloma Gold Rush series! This collection includes the following four sweet mail order bride romances:

A Mail Order Bride For Daniel: Daniel Bishop is a handsome and kind miner of coal and gold. Though his work is thrilling and he has made a fortune in gold, there is one thing he is desperately missing: a wife with which to share both his life and riches. He has been writing letters to a sweet and feisty young woman named Hannah James, a jewelry store clerk in New York, and she is eager to join him out West to embark on an exciting new start.Problems arise when Hannah raises her desire to continue selling jewelry as she had back East. Daniel, out of concern for her safety, initially tries to discourage her due to the fact that the town is known for its history of run-ins with bandits. One day, while Daniel is away working, Hannah attempts to go mining on her own, and due to her lack of experience, she finds herself lost in a deep, dark cave.

Will Daniel be able to save his new bride from danger, and if so, how can he ensure her safety while helping her fulfill her lifelong dreams?

A Mail Order Bride For Franklin: Sheriff Franklin McQueen and his son, Geoffrey, work tirelessly to keep the town safe from bandits. A few years prior, Franklin’s beloved wife, Gladys, passed away; now, the sheriff longs for a new wife on which to bestow his love and care–and with which he can better run his jail house.After placing an advertisement in the newspaper for a mail order bride, he begins corresponding with a young woman named Miss Louise Winchester. When she arrives, however, she feels overwhelmed and out of her depth while helping in the jail house, and comes to believe that she may not be the right sort of woman for Franklin after all.

When she finally begins to feel at ease, it turns out that one of the bandits has it in for her. Can Franklin keep his new bride safe from harm?

A Mail Order Bride For Benjamin: Upon being released from jail on account of his good behavior, Benjamin Pickett is ready to start a new life and set up roots in the town of Coloma. The former bandit has begun to form a friendship with Franklin, the town sheriff, who warns him that although he is reformed in the eyes of the law, that the townsfolk may still be wary of him.With Franklin’s help, Benjamin acquires a job at the neighboring lumber mill, and after gaining the trust of his new boss and his fellow workers, he is given a chance to build the home of his dreams. He longs for a wife to share his life with and places an advertisement in the newspaper, and before long, he is sending a ticket for Miss Maybelle Fields to travel from Maryland to join him.

Only one problem remains. How can he propose to Maybelle until he has confessed the truth about his past?

A Mail Order Bride For Thomas: Thomas Cooke, the head supervisor at the lumber mill, watches his friends and coworkers return home every day to their loving wives and begins to desperately long for a wife of his own. There aren’t many women living in town who aren’t already spoken for, however, so he decides to place an advertisement for a mail order bride. He anxiously awaits the results of his efforts, and before long, he has the pleasure of penning letters to a charming cook named Ms. Violet Pringle.

When she arrives, it seems as though they were made for each other, cut from the same piece of dough, as Violet likes to think. Just days after their wedding, while Thomas is away at the mill, a fire breaks out in town. To his dismay, he learns that the flames are in fact coming from his home. Will Violet, the love of his life, be spared? Will the flames devour the home he built with his very hands?

Maitreya’s Distinction between Phenomena and the Nature of Phenomena distinguishes the illusory phenomenal world of saṃsāra produced by the confused dualistic mind from the ultimate reality that is mind’s true nature. The transition from the one to the other is the process of “mining for wisdom within delusion.” Maitreya’s text calls this “the fundamental change,” which refers to the vanishing of delusive appearances through practicing the path, thus revealing the underlying changeless nature of these appearances. In this context, the main part of the text consists of the most detailed explanation of nonconceptual wisdom—the primary driving force of the path as well as its ultimate result—in Buddhist literature. 

The introduction of the book discusses these two topics (fundamental change and nonconceptual wisdom) at length and shows how they are treated in a number of other Buddhist scriptures. The three translated commentaries, by Vasubandhu, the Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje, and Gö Lotsāwa, as well as excerpts from all other available commentaries on Maitreya’s text, put it in the larger context of the Indian Yogācāra School and further clarify its main themes. They also show how this text is not a mere scholarly document, but an essential foundation for practicing both the sūtrayāna and the vajrayāna and thus making what it describes a living experience. The book also discusses the remaining four of the five works of Maitreya, their transmission from India to Tibet, and various views about them in the Tibetan tradition.

Review

“Mining for Wisdom within Delusion provides us with a much-needed comprehensive treatment of Maitreya’s text, something that both scholars and meditators will find illuminating. Karl Brunnhölzl’s adept translation, annotations, and introduction add layers of richness that always bring us back to the basic point: wisdom is discovered within delusion.”—Elizabeth Callahan, translator of The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Six, Part Three: Frameworks of Buddhist Philosophy 

“Once again Tsadra and Karl Brunnhölzl have given us access to a classic of Buddhist Mahayana, so important in recognizing the true nature of reality. This classic will guide the scholar and the practitioner alike in discovering the nonconceptual wisdom within delusion. This is a monumental work.”—Judith Simmer-Brown, Ph.D., Professor of Religious Studies, Naropa University

“While scholars will delight in this rich banquet of information, all practitioners who wonder how it works that their meditation bears fruit as the dawning of ‘nonconceptual wisdom,’ what it actually is that undergoes the ‘fundamental change,’ and how that process unfolds will definitely find overwhelming insight in this book.”—Susanne Schefczyk, translator and editor of Everyday Consciousness and Primordial Awareness 

“There is no doubt that everything a scholar or a practitioner needs to know on this subject is here, and that Karl Brunnhölzl is the reigning expert and right person to have written it. If anything at all was left out, we don’t need to know it.”—Sarah Harding, translator of Machik’s Complete Explanation

About the Author

Karl Brunnhölzl, MD, was trained as a physician and also studied Tibetology. He received his systematic training in Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy and practice at the Marpa Institute for Translators, founded by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche. Since 1989 he has been a translator and interpreter from Tibetan and English. He is presently involved with the Nitartha Institute as a teacher and translator.

Unleash the power of creatine.

The future is here...the horror is now!

A novel by William Woolfolk

Independent Film Distribution : How to Make a Successful End Run Around the Big Guys by Phil Hall 2nd Edition

This new updated edition provides a wide range of interviews with filmmakers, distributors, festival programmers, marketing experts, and critics. Independent Film Distribution takes the reader deep into the process of positioning a film for distribution. Unique case studies and exclusive commentary from the top names in independent cinema – including Mark Cuban, Hal Hartley, Bill Plympton, Liz Garbus, and Arthur Dong – help provide a hands-on approach to the subject.

With a quarter-century of experience in the film business, Phil Hall has been recognized for his work as a journalist, publicist, festival programmer, lecturer, and historian. He is the author of five books, including the acclaimed The History of Independent Cinema, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wired Magazine and Film Threat.

Self Exposure : Human-Interest Journalism and the Emergence of Celebrity in America, 1890-1940 by Charles L. Ponce de Leon

Few features of contemporary American culture are as widely lamented as the public's obsession with celebrity-and the trivializing effect this obsession has on what appears as news. Nevertheless, America's "culture of celebrity" remains misunderstood, particularly when critics discuss its historical roots. In this pathbreaking book, Charles Ponce de Leon provides a new interpretation of the emergence of celebrity. Focusing on the development of human-interest journalism about prominent public figures, he illuminates the ways in which new forms of press coverage gradually undermined the belief that famous people were "great" instead encouraging the public to regard them as complex, interesting, even flawed individuals and offering readers seemingly intimate glimpses of the "real" selves that were presumed to lie behind the calculated, self-promotional fronts that celebrities displayed in public. But human-interest journalism about celebrities did more than simply offer celebrities a new means of gaining publicity or provide readers with the "inside dope" says Ponce de Leon. In chapters devoted to celebrities from the realms of business, politics, entertainment, and sports, he shows how authors of celebrity journalism used their writings to weigh in on subjects as wide-ranging as social class, race relations, gender roles, democracy, political reform, self-expression, material success, competition, and the work ethic, offering the public a new lens through which to view these issues.

A fascinating contribution to one of the most important developments of modern America. One has only to think for a moment about contemporary culture to wish to know where our obsessions with celebrity come from and, more profoundly, what impact celebrating celebrity has had on our civilization.--James B. Gilbert, University of Maryland at College Park

If you have ever felt like a misfit in school or been paralyzed by your family’s imposing expectations, if you have ever obsessed about your appearance or panicked about choosing a career path, if you have ever wondered if every single thing to which your body is exposed, from egg yolks to X-rays, might harm you, then you may be surprised to find a kindred spirit in The Man in the Gray Flannel Skirt.

Growing up in sunny La Jolla, California, Jon-Jon Goulian was a hyperneurotic kid who felt out of place wherever he turned, and who, in his own words, was forever on the verge of “caving in beneath the pressures of modern life.” From his fear of competition to his fear of pimples, from his fear of sex to his fear of saturated fat, the range and depth of Jon-Jon’s phobias were seemingly boundless. With his two older brothers providing a sterling example he believed he could never live up to, and his stern grandfather, the political philosopher Sidney Hook, continually calling him to account for his intellectual failure, Jon-Jon, feeling pressed against the wall, wracked with despair, and dizzy with insecurity, instinctively resorted, for reasons that became clear to him only many years later, to a most ingenious scheme for keeping conventional expectations at bay: women’s clothing! Ingenious, perhaps, but woefully ineffective, as Jon-Jon discovers, again and again, that behind his skirt, leggings, halter top, and high heels, he’s still as wildly neurotic, and as wracked with anxiety, as he’s always been.

In this hilarious and heartfelt memoir, Jon-Jon Goulian’s witty and exuberant voice shines through, as he comes to terms with what it means to truly be yourself.

The explosive tale of Marvel Comics’ crime-fighting superhero

SPIDER-MAN

It begins with an orphan named Peter Parker, raised by his beloved Aunt May and Uncle Ben in Queens, New York. A quiet student, he works diligently at his studies and pines for the beautiful Mary Jane Watson. But this ordinary teenage boy is about to have his life turned upside down, when he is bitten by a genetically altered spider. Suddenly, he finds himself possessed of spectacular powers. He is now and forever Spider-Man!

Follow Spider-Man’s action-packed journey, from his struggle to harness the extraordinary gifts that will prove to be both blessing and curse, to his fight to save innocent lives while the media tears him to pieces. It all leads up to his ultimate battle high above New York streets, against the death-dealing madman known as the Green Goblin. While the city watches helplessly and countless lives hang in the balance, Spider-Man confronts his archnemesis, and the Goblin puts Spider-Man’s vow to fight crime to the ultimate test . . .

Welcome to Los Angeles, birthplace and residence of Tori Spelling. 

It’s not every Hollywood starlet whose name greets you on a Virgin Airways flight into la-la land. But Tori Spelling has come to accept that her life is a spectacle. Her name is her brand, and business is booming. Too bad when your job is to be yourself, you can’t exactly take a break. 

Tori finally has everything she thought she wanted—a loving family and a successful career—but trying to live a normal life in Hollywood is a little weird. With the irresistible wit, attitude, and humor that fans have come to love, the New York Times bestselling author of sTORI telling and Mommywood is back with more hilarious, heartwarming, and candid stories of juggling work, marriage, motherhood, and reality television cameras. 

Tori comes clean about doing her time on jury duty, stalking herself on Twitter, discovering her former 90210 castmates’ "I Hate Tori" club, contracting swine flu, and contacting Farrah Fawcett from the dead. Like many mothers, she struggles to find balance (Stars, they’re just like us!)—only most women don’t have to battle it out with paparazzi at the grocery store. She talks openly about the darker side of life in the spotlight: media scrutiny over her weight and her marriage to Dean McDermott, her controversial relationship with Dean’s ex-wife, and her unfolding reconciliation with her mother. 

Having it all isn’t always easy—especially when you’re a perfectionist—but with the help of her unconventional family and friends, an underwear-clad spiritual cleansing or two, and faith in herself, she’s learning to find her happy ending. Because when you’re Tori Spelling, every day brings uncharted terriTORI.

Meet Austin Clay, the CIA's best-kept secret.

There has always been a need in the spy game for operations outside the realm of legality-covert missions so black no one in the American government, and almost no one in intelligence itself, is aware of their existence. The left hand can't know what the right hand is doing. 

Austin Clay is that right hand, executing missions that would be disavowed by his own government were he ever to be compromised. His team consists of only his trusted handler and himself. His missions are among the most important and dangerous in U.S. history.

Clay is sent to track down a missing American operative, a man who was captured outside of Moscow, in the Russian countryside. Soon he discovers the missing officer is only the beginning of the mission, and finds himself protecting a desperate woman who believes a mole has penetrated the top levels of the U.S. government, throwing the international balance of power into jeopardy.

With blistering pace, international intrigue, and a high-stakes plot that spans continents, THE RIGHT HAND introduces a new hero, from the novelist whose work the New York Times Book Review has proclaimed "devastatingly cool."

Reading and writing poetry as a class assignment can be a rewarding experience―especially when it’s approached in a spirit of fun. This book explains how poets use words imaginatively in rhymed and metered verse as well as free verse. Poems can be humorous or serious, long or very short, joyful or sad―and this instructive, yet fun-to-read book points the way toward composing and reading poems of all kinds. It’s filled with examples from Homer through today. All titles in Barron’s Painless Series are written especially for classroom use for middle-school students.

After acquiring the limitless energy provided by controlled nuclear fusion, the people of Earth create a surfeit of consumer products that strips the earth of its resources and threatens to bury its people.

"An intriguing fantasy in a fascinating world." ―Robert Jordan, New York Times Bestselling author of The Wheel of Time® series

Creslin, son of the Marshall of Westwind, flees an arranged marriage; is enslaved by the White Wizards, escapes, and enters a marriage of convenience to Maegara, the white witch. Their attempt at building a new life and society brings untold dangers, and threatens to shift the balance of the world, leading to consequences both expected and unforeseen.

L.E. Modesitt, Jr.'s bestselling fantasy novels set in the magical world of Recluce are among the most popular in contemporary fantasy. Each novel tells an independent story that nevertheless reverberates though all the other books in the series, to deepen and enhance the reading experience. Rich in detail, the Saga of Recluce is a feast of wondrous marvels.

Two Alliance-Union novels, Merchanter's Luck and Forty Thousand in Gehenna, bound in one omnibus volume for the first time!

Merchanter's Luck—His name was Sandor and he was the owner and entire crew of a tramp star-freighter that flew the Union planets under false papers and fake names. Her name was Allison and she was a proud but junior member of the powerful family whose mighty starship, Dublin Again, was the true queen of the spaceways. They met at Viking Station, she seeking a night’s dalliance, he desperately in search of a spacer assistant. Their fateful meeting was to lead to a record-breaking race to Pell Station, thereby catching the calculating eye of the grim commander of the Alliance battlecraft Norway, and a terrifying showdown at a deadly destination off the cosmic charts. 

Forty Thousand In Gehenna—When forty thousand human colonists are abandoned for political reasons on a planet called Gehenna, and re-supply ships fail to arrive, collapse seems imminent. Yet over the next two centuries, the descendants of the original colonists survive despite all odds by entering a partnership with the planet’s native intelligence—the lizard-like, burrowing calibans.

One Degree Beyond : A Reiki Journey into Energy Medicine: Your 21-Day Step-by-Step Guide to Relax, Open and Celebrate by JaneAnne Narrin 

There is a an unfolding dynamic cosmology developing around the world. This emerging worldview blends some of the knowledge and discipline of modern science with ancient and time honored spiritual beliefs and practices. One Degree Beyond is an excellent example of how these two complementary areas of inquiry can bring humankind to a new and much needed understanding.

Make no mistake. Although it does put some of the more recent trends in scientific inquiry and research in perspective and does establish that the traditional view, which had science and religion at odds, is outmoded and unnecessary, this is not a book about new science. Rather it is an invitation to a personal exploration with global implications. One key to the development of a new consciousness is Reiki, an ancient approach to healing rediscovered and formalized by a Japanese doctor, Dr. Mikao Usui, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The tradition established by Dr. Usui continues to this day and Reiki has grown in popularity.

The author of One Degree Beyond, Janeanne Narrin, is a trained Reiki Master of the Usui tradition with over ten years experience as a teacher and practitioner of this simple approach to the relief of pain and suffering. Narrin also has an extensive background in management consulting for large corporations and consequently has wide experience dealing with stress and anxiety in the corporate workplace. She is a an experienced and whole systems-inspired practitioner who presents Reiki, the ancient art of "hands-on" healing, in the wider framework of energy medicine, and proposes not only do we have bodies and minds, but we also partake in and embody the very energies that create the universe, moment by moment a new. One Degree Beyond elucidates the very practical relationship between Reiki and modern scientific thinking, and uses the tools of self inquiry to open new doors of perception.

In inviting readers to explore possibilities, or move beyond what is apparent, Narrin is encouraging us to attempt to focus our thoughts and actions in ways which honor both our personal potentials and our connection to all of the other elements and forces of Nature. Thus, One Degree Beyond is a primer for action. It is gentle and wise, does not proselytize, and one needn't be a Reiki practitioner to derive its benefits. It is full of helpful hints, upbeat suggestions, and engaging exercises to expedite a personal journey into health consciousness and heightened spiritual awareness.

On a beautiful June day in 1965, a dozen girls-classmates at a picturesque Blue Ridge women's college-launched their homemade raft (inspired by Huck Finn's) on a trip down the Mississippi. It's Girls A-Go-Go Down the Mississippi read the headline in the Paducah, Kentucky, paper.

Thirty-five years later, four of those "girls" reunite to cruise the river again. This time it's on the luxury steamboat, The Belle of Natchez, and there's no publicity. This time, when they reach New Orleans, they'll give the river the ashes of a fifth rafter-beautiful Margaret ("Baby") Ballou.

Revered for her powerful female characters, here Lee Smith tells a brilliantly authoritative story of how college pals who grew up in an era when they were still called "girls" have negotiated life as "women." Harriet Holding is a hesitant teacher who has never married (she can't explain why, even to herself). Courtney Gray struggles to step away from her Southern Living-style life. Catherine Wilson, a sculptor, is suffocating in her happy third marriage. Anna Todd is a world-famous romance novelist escaping her own tragedies through her fiction. And finally there is Baby, the girl they come to bury-along with their memories of her rebellions and betrayals.

THE LAST GIRLS is wonderful reading. It's also wonderfully revealing of women's lives-of the idea of romance, of the relevance of past to present, of memory and desire.

"An intriguing fantasy in a fascinating world." ―Robert Jordan, New York Times Bestselling author of The Wheel of Time® series

Dorrin, a young scion of the Order magicians, is interested in forbidden knowledge, in the working of machines. Promising, intelligent, but determined to follow his passion for scientific knowledge, Dorrin can invent machines. He is the Leonardo da Vinci of his age, but his insights violate the rules of the Order magic of Recluce. Now he must go into exile in the lands of Chaos to pursue his dangerous inventions.

Yet Dorrin remains loyal to the idea of Order, and is tortured by the knowledge that to preserve it he must constantly create new devices for war. For the forces of the Chaos wizards are moving across the land, devouring whole countries and creating an empire―and their ultimate goal is the destruction of Recluce.

L.E. Modesitt, Jr.'s bestselling fantasy novels set in the magical world of Recluce are among the most popular in contemporary fantasy. Each novel tells an independent story that nevertheless reverberates though all the other books in the series, to deepen and enhance the reading experience. Rich in detail, the Recluce books are a feast of wondrous marvels.

Little did Teldin Moore know there was life beyond Krynn's moons--until a crashed spelljamming ship demolished his farm and changed his life!  With a dying alien's magical cloak and cryptic words, Teldin quickly discovers that he's a popular fellow.  He and his giff companion race to find Astinus of Palanthas and the gnomes of Mount Nevermind to learn why, before the monstrous neogi can find them!

The Terrifying New Motion Picture by the Director of The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II

Dr. Peyton Westlake, a synthetic skin researcher, is hideously burned by criminals and determines to regain the woman he loves and seek revenge on his tormentors.

Based on the screenplay by Chuck Pfarrer, Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi, Daniel Goldin, and Joshua Goldin.  Story by Sam Raimi.

The triumphant conclusion to the blockbuster trilogy that made science fiction history!

In Dune: House Corrino Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson bring us the magnificent final chapter in the unforgettable saga begun in Dune: House Atreides and continued in Dune: House Harkonnen. 

Here nobles and commoners, soldiers and slaves, wives and courtesans shape the amazing destiny of a tumultuous universe. An epic saga of love and war, crime and politics, religion and revolution, this magnificent novel is a fitting conclusion to a great science fiction trilogy ... and an invaluable addition to the thrilling world of Frank Herbert’s immortal Dune.

Dune: House Corrino

Fearful of losing his precarious hold on the Golden Lion Throne, Shaddam IV, Emperor of a Million Worlds, has devised a radical scheme to develop an alternative to melange, the addictive spice that binds the Imperium together and that can be found only on the desert world of Dune. 

In subterranean labs on the machine planet Ix, cruel Tleilaxu overlords use slaves and prisoners as part of a horrific plan to manufacture a synthetic form of melange known as amal. If amal can supplant the spice from Dune, it will give Shaddam what he seeks: absolute power.

But Duke Leto Atreides, grief-stricken yet unbowed by the tragic death of his son Victor, determined to restore the honor and prestige of his House, has his own plans for Ix. 

He will free the Ixians from their oppressive conquerors and restore his friend Prince Rhombur, injured scion of the disgraced House Vernius, to his rightful place as Ixian ruler. It is a bold and risky venture, for House Atreides has limited military resources and many ruthless enemies, including the sadistic Baron Harkonnen, despotic master of Dune. 

Meanwhile, Duke Leto’s consort, the beautiful Lady Jessica, obeying the orders of her superiors in the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, has conceived a child that the Sisterhood intends to be the penultimate step in the creation of an all-powerful being. Yet what the Sisterhood doesn’t know is that the child Jessica is carrying is not the girl they are expecting, but a boy. 

Jessica’s act of disobedience is an act of love — her attempt to provide her Duke with a male heir to House Atreides — but an act that, when discovered, could kill both mother and baby. 

Like the Bene Gesserit, Shaddam Corrino is also concerned with making a plan for the future — securing his legacy. Blinded by his need for power, the Emperor will launch a plot against Dune, the only natural source of true spice. If he succeeds, his madness will result in a cataclysmic tragedy not even he foresees: the end of space travel, the Imperium, and civilization itself.

With Duke Leto and other renegades and revolutionaries fighting to stem the tide of darkness that threatens to engulf their universe, the stage is set for a showdown unlike any seen before.

Yambo, a sixtyish rare-book dealer who lives in Milan, has suffered a loss of memory-he can remember the plot of every book he has ever read, every line of poetry, but he no longer knows his own name, doesn't recognize his wife or his daughters, and remembers nothing about his parents or his childhood. In an effort to retrieve his past, he withdraws to the family home somewhere in the hills between Milan and Turin.There, in the sprawling attic, he searches through boxes of old newspapers, comics, records, photo albums, and adolescent diaries. And so Yambo relives the story of his generation: Mussolini, Catholic education and guilt, Josephine Baker, Flash Gordon, Fred Astaire. His memories run wild, and the life racing before his eyes takes the form of a graphic novel. Yambo struggles through the frames to capture one simple, innocent image: that of his first love. 

A fascinating, abundant new novel-wide-ranging, nostalgic, funny, full of heart-from the incomparable Eco. 

A collection of Robert E. Howard's best historical fiction, including "Treasures of Tartary," "Son of the White Wolf," "Black Vulmea's Vengeance," "Boot Hill Payoff" and "The Vultures of Whapeton."

The Cleveland Clinic Heart Book provides a modern view of heart health care for all ages, including invaluable information on numerous diseases and conditions along with their diagnoses; plus current standards of practice as well as up-to-the-minute surgical procedures. The Cleveland Clinic Heart Book has heart health tips for the entire family.

From Library Journal

The top two cardiac units in the country duke it out on the bookshelves with these consumer health titles. The Mayo Clinic has revised its 1993 guide to heart disease, including updated statistics and some new information, particularly on nutrition (butter vs. margarine, phen-fen, the need to eat more soy), but most of the information is essentially the same as in the first edition. There's nothing in here that you haven't seen in countless other health books, but it is presented well, and the explanations of different types of heart surgery are top-rate. The Cleveland Clinic Heart Book is also a compilation effort by various staff members. Quite similar to the Mayo book, it, too, includes chapters on how the heart works, different types of heart disease, and heart-healthy living. It contains a nice section on medications, including generic and brand names, their uses, and side effects--but then, so does the Mayo book. Both books also have sections on emergencies and CPR, but don't look for alternative therapies. It's hard to imagine two books that are more similar. Basically, they cover exactly the same subject and do it well. Normally, you would only need one or the other, and if you have to choose one, take the Mayo book for its nicer layout and prettier pictures. But most libraries will want both to meet patron requests. As reputable sources of information on standard medical treatment, these two books can't be beat.
-Elizabeth A. Williams, Houston Acad. of Medicine-Texas Medical Ctr. Lib. 
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Having unveiled a family secret and discovering the truth behind her special powers, twelve-year-old Clovermead and her father find themselves in the middle of a vicious war between the nuns of Lady Moon and the evil bearpriests of Lord Ursus, causing Clovermead to come to terms with who she is in order to succeed in her very important mission.